It’s been a back and forth saga with the TWCable TV iPad app. A month ago Time Warner released the app, which let Time Warner cable subscribers view live TV on their iPads, as long as they were connected to their TWC/Road Runner-powered home networks.
Less than two days later, Time Warner had to cut the number a channels in half due to overwhelming demand on their authentication servers. Two weeks after that, Time Warner dropped more channels from the app due to pressure from the channels’ programmers, in this case Discovery, Fox, and Viacom.
However, not being happy about having to drop the channels, Time Warner went to court and requested a declaratory judgment, asking the courts to rule on whether it could or couldn’t show cable subscription channels on the iPad. Time Warner’s stance was that the iPad was no different that just another TV screen in the house. (This parallels the experience of Cablevision’s Optimum for iPad app, which has also faced challenges from Viacom’s lawyers.)
So much trouble for one app, huh? Well, today Time Warner announced some good news: Fox and Discovery have agreed to allow Time Warner to show some of their channels in the iPad app. Those channels include Discovery Channel, TLC, and Animal Planet from Discovery and FX, Fox News, and National Geographic from Fox. As for the Viacom channels, for now it looks like their fate on the TWCable TV app remains in the hands of the court. Despite the hiccups, as MacRumors points out, Time Warner has slowly been adding more channels to the app; it now has more than 50 available, depending on your subscription package.
Time Warner adds Fox and Discovery channels back to app originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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